


Cube 413

by WishUponADragon



Category: Cube (1997 2002 2004), Hiveswap
Genre: Gore, Math, Ships if you squint, So much character death, do not read if you love the characters because they probably die I'm sorry, don't look for them though because it'll probably make you sad because they die
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-10
Updated: 2019-02-10
Packaged: 2019-10-25 09:37:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,039
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17722718
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WishUponADragon/pseuds/WishUponADragon
Summary: The concept of Cube just fits so well with Alternia in general. It's already a dystopia. Why not have a death maze ruled by vague and unexplained math. It's probably canon.





	Cube 413

“...admittedly a bit large scale for forces of the rebellion, impressively built, and to have gone so long without notice! This place  _ must _ be underground.” The teal kicked at open air as he struggled to pull himself up through the floor. As he rolled on his side, the olive he’d been speaking to sprung up after him and the hatch slid closed automatically behind her. The pair were a bit worse for wear but neither was badly wounded.

“No, I definitely get why we’re climbing, Teg, but seriously, I don’t think a bunch of scared lowbloods would have the time or resources to...” She stopped talking upon noticing a metal pipe sticking out from the wall. “Okay, listen, don’t panic, stay low to the ground and move to the corners,” she whispered as she did so herself. 

Tegiri ignored her warning and stood, dusting himself off. “I’m telling you, Polypa, this is exactly the kind of treacherous-”

His rant was abruptly cut off by four flamethrowers mounter in the wall activating at once, and by Polypa shrieking at him to get down, a second too late for him to have been able to have actually done it.

Polypa drew herself tighter into a ball in the corner, the blood pounding in her ears as flames poured into the room. She tucked her head between her knees and counted the seconds. One... two... three... four... 

On five, the flames died and the air hung hot and still. Olive sweat poured off of her forehead and mixed with the olive tears running down her cheeks. Six... seven... eight... 

* * *

  
The jade lay curled in a ball on the floor, waiting for whatever new horror this room had to offer, her discarded jacket positively reeking with acid beside her. Slowly, slowly, slowly, she unwound herself and looked around. It wasn’t the same color as the room she’d just come out of, this one was red instead of a dizzying blue, but otherwise they were perfectly identical. 

Four walls, metal and sterile looking, each with a perfect square door in the perfect center, and the floor and ceiling were just exactly the same. She’d appreciated the aesthetic when she’d first woken but now it made her sick. It was so perfect, and so identical, it was wrong beyond what Lynera could put into words. But she wasn’t getting anywhere by laying on the floor, and she most certainly wasn’t getting out. 

She pushed herself to rise, not entirely managing to keep herself from trembling. From either shock or cold, though she wasn’t sure it mattered which. Maybe both. Lynera staggered away from the steaming jacket that had taken the worst of the acid for her and blinked the world back into focus. One door she had come from, two would take vertical movement and she wasn’t sure she was up to that yet. So. Three choices. 

Lynera straightened her back defiantly and rubbed the back of her hand across her face. She was not crying. She was not stressed. This silly game was not getting to her at all. The middle door would do, she didn’t see any reason why not. 

The handle turned smoothly, like the first two she’d opened and fell open with a thud. Lynera scrambled up into the narrow passage between the rooms and spun the handle until it too fell. 

Well. This room was certainly not safe. The smoking pile of ash in the center of it spoke to that. Lynera’s throat clenched at the idea she wasn’t alone in here. How many other trolls were subject to this insane maze?

“Don’t.” The voice was soft, and to her left. Lynera peeked curiously around the corner and noticed an olive girl with a chunk of her horn missing. Well, she thought it was an olive troll, it was a bit hard to tell in the deep purple light. She cleared her throat as she realized she’d been staring in this room in mute horror for longer than she’d needed to. The olive must have assumed she was about to come in.

“Um. Hello!” She called. The other troll didn’t even look up at her. “Are you alright in here? Do you need some assistance?” Lynera wasn’t sure why she’d asked. There wasn’t very much she could do for the girl sitting in a clearly trapped room. The troll didn’t move, and if she hadn’t heard her speak a moment ago, Lynera would not have been sure if she was alive or not. “Well, I’m just going to backtrack a bit, this room over here is trap-free as far as I can tell!” 

Lynera withdrew from the room and let the doors close behind her. Maybe the girl would follow. In the meantime, she had two other doors to pick from before she had to climb anywhere. 

Looking between the two, Lynera found herself wishing for a coin to flip. She checked the pockets in the hideously shapeless pure jade pants she’d woken up in. Her fingers closed around something that was most certainly not a coin. Lynera held it up in front of her eyes and flicked the switchblade open. It was her favorite knife that she spent many a day polishing and sharpening to perfection, not as intimidating as any of her big ones, but just as deadly. She shoved it back in her pocket and shuddered. She didn’t want to think about why that might have been allowed in here.

Before she had any more time to contemplate, the door to her right fell open and a troll rolled out of it, slamming hard to the ground. Lynera looked at him in shock at exactly how uncoordinated one had to be to manage that. Before she could summon anything to say, he noticed her and shot a pair of finger guns and the flirtiest grin he could manage from his spot sprawled out on the floor.

“Well, I see this room must be safe, since there’s an angel in it.” The indigo picked himself off the floor and adjusted his jacket as though it was a fancy suit jacket before turning around to look at Lynera again. 

For her part, Lynera stood gaping in shock and scandal at his way of introduction, though the compliment left a faint blush on her cheeks. “Why, I never- is that really- I mean, I do believe that this is hardly appropriate!”

Before he could say anything in response the door to the trapped room opened again and the olive girl crawled through. She dangled her legs off the edge and stared disinterestedly at the other two trolls.

The indigo instantly lost interest in Lynera and bounded across the room to greet her. “Oh, dearest one, how have I been so blessed that the fates have deigned to allow me to gaze-” He was cut off by a swift kick in the gut from the girl, who in the same motion leapt down so she could stalk across the room to stand by Lynera.

“Think I’d rather go back to the other room,” she growled under her breath. 

“I think I rather agree,” Lynera huffed. “Well, there is one room I haven’t checked, well, I haven’t checked up or down yet either. Maybe we should exhaust all- AAAAAHHHHH!” 

A troll dropped from the ceiling in a flurry of blue and red sparks. Once he had descended into the room he spread his arms wide. “Ah, I was beginning to wonder if I was alone. But of course not, what’s a game without some competition?”

The three trolls on the ground blinked up at this newcomer. Lynera had practically jumped into the other girl’s arms, which were unusually strong, she noticed. The girl reflexively pulled Lynera tight against her and turned them so Lynera was not directly in his line of sight. The indigo did not seem to see a reason to pull himself off the floor, and stayed resting against the wall. 

“Struck speechless, I see. It’s only natural in the presence of royalty.” He drifted lower, until he was almost, but not quite, on the ground. “It’s alright, I shall not harm you until it is stated we may begin our battle royale.”

The olive girl unhooked one arm from Lynera and pointed back to the door she’d come from. “Better get to your starting position, I heard it’s right over there.”

The goldblood squinted at her, and looked to the door. “That’s very clever of you.” Sparks surrounded Lynera’s jacket on the floor it flew to his eye level for inspection. “Yours I assume?” He didn’t wait for her to speak before proceeding with his analysis. “The acid traps in here are a hundred fold stronger than rain. You got very lucky.”

The tips of Lynera’s ears burned green. “Lucky? Why- Oh!” She pulled herself free of the girl’s embrace and stomped to the door on the left wall. What would he even know about it? She wasn’t lucky, she was quick thinking. A lucky person wouldn’t be in here anyways. 

She spun the handle with more force than was probably necessary. Regardless, the door opened faster. She was not about to spend another second in here with such a pompous prick, damn the consequences. Naturally, in a life a death situation and the only troll she was remotely getting along with was almost mute.

She twisted the second handle so hard for a moment she feared she’d broken it, but then the door fell away and she saw-

“Bronya!” Lynera’s yell startled the three trolls in the room, who simultaneously jerked away from the open door they’d all had their heads stuck through. The jade sprung away from the other two and dashed over to her friend. 

“Lynera! Oh, I was so worried they might have brought you here, but at least we’re together.” She hugged Lynera as she was climbing down. “I’m so happy to see you.”

The gold crawled through behind her, eyebrows raised in obvious interest. “More contestants? This is certainly interesting.”

“And who are you?” Lynera regretfully tore her attention away from Bronya to look over the other two trolls. It was the burgundy who’d questioned him, standing with her arms crossed tight against her chest while the cerulean, who was oddly enough holding a pair of glasses and one of his boots instead of wearing them, leaned against the wall and watched with a poorly hidden smirk. 

Bronya, with that particular expression Lynera knew meant she sensed an impending fight, snapped to action. “Yes, Lynera, who’s your friend?” 

“He is absolutely-”

“The greatest psionic of all time! A prince among mustardbloods. It’s almost criminal that you do not already know of me.” He sniffed, and then scowled at the olive girl as she pushed her way past him into the room, the indigo close behind. “I am Azjada Knelax.” He held his head high as though waiting for applause. 

No applause came. “Nice to meet you! I’m Bronya, and this is Marsti, and Mallek, and you already met-”

“I don’t care.” He walked- on his feet, Lynera noted with amazement- over to the corner furthest from the other trolls. “Are we going to wait here for the battle to begin or would you all like a head start? If you ask nicely I might even wait a while after we begin, just to make it fair.”

The rest of the steadily growing group exchanged concerned glances. The cerulean, Mallek, was the first to break the silence. “What the hell are you even talking about?”

Azjada rolled his eyes and sighed in exaggerated frustration. “Why would we be in this engaging battleground if not to engage in battle? Obviously, the best and most adaptable fighter will be released and rewarded with a commanding place in Her Imperial Condescension’s army!” He glared around the room as if the others were complete idiots for not also jumping to this conclusion. 

The olive put a hand on her hip. “Yeah, there are so many flaws in that theory...”

Bronya broke in, obviously intent on deescalating the situation. “Now, now, I’m sure there are plenty of other reasons we could be in here!” 

This seemed to send the indigo into some sort of crisis. “Oh no! This is jail! I’ve been arrested for my support of lowbloods!” He continued to wail as he sunk down the wall into a fetal position. Lynera and the olive girl exchanged a look of disbelief. 

“Why wouldn’t they just cull us though?” Marsti asked over the indigo’s sobs. 

Mallek nodded. “Maybe this is how the seadwellers entertain themselves. There isn’t anyone above indigo in here, unless you guys have run into anyone else?” 

Azjada huffed. “I don’t see how any of this indicates that we are not here to fight.”

“We’re in here to die.” The olive girl’s voice was steady and certain. “And it doesn’t matter how, it doesn’t matter why, and it doesn’t matter when. So, yeah, if you wanna fight, I can take you.”

For a tense moment no one moved, or spoke, or breathed while the olive glared down Azjada. For all his bravado, she seemed to rattle him. 

“Oh, dear one, why are you so gloomy? Do, tell your beloved Zebruh.” He had snuck up behind her and attempted to snake an arm around her shoulders, and for his trouble was met with a quick flurry of punches that left him reeling. 

She was crying. She kept it out of her voice but made no move to brush away the tears. “I just watched my best friend die, you ass. And my name is Polypa.” 

Lynera was moving towards her almost as soon as Bronya was. Sweeps of tending to grubs and young trolls had left them both well accustomed to crying. They each pulled Polypa to them and held her as tightly as the luscii hold their newly given charges. 

Lynera listened to the others talk as she and Bronya comforted Polypa. Azjada was more willing to listen to reason than before, and Marsti made some excellent points, mostly about how if he was wrong he’d be left to wander, alone, possibly forever. 

She and Mallek seemed very certain that the numbers on entryways to the rooms were important. Lynera figured that they must be rather small, as she hadn’t even noticed them before. She resolved to look next time they moved.

“So, we thought at first they might be coordinates,” Mallek explained.

“But they can’t be, they aren’t sequential,” Marsti finished for him. 

“Right, and that would be a ridiculously big grid for whoever made this to work with. So, we think they must be there to tell us which rooms are safe.”

“And we haven’t figured that part out.”

“But we’ll get there!”

“And in the meantime...”

“We can tell which rooms have traps by setting them off with this.” Mallek held up the boot.

Azjada nodded. “Right. Well, let’s get on with that.” 

Mallek and Marsti exchanged a glance. “Well, you see...”

“We’ve already checked the floor and two of the walls. They’re traps.” Marsti was very blunt. “Then there’s the one we came through, the one you came through, and the ceiling.” 

“We need to go up.” Polypa’s voice was rough but she made herself heard.

Bronya rubbed her back and looked to Lynera with concern before focusing on Polypa again. “And what makes you say that?” 

She rubbed her face and pulled away from the jades. “It’s... it’s something Tegiri said. This place is so big, it’s got to be underground. So, if we want out, we need to go up.”

The group came to a silent agreement. “Alright, Azjada, I bet you could make this go faster with your psionics.” 

The gold jumped at being addressed as though he had any obligation to help, but complied, lifting Mallek up to the door set in the ceiling. He opened the two doors and tossed the boot up, only to have it fall back into his face. “Uh, safe,” he called down. 

Azjada’s psionics sparked around all of them and one by one they flew up through the ceiling. “Yeah, see, that was way fast, good job,” Mallek said to him, still rubbing his nose where he’d been hit. 

“Check the numbers,” Marsti ordered, sitting down beside the door in what was now the floor. She held it open and kept a hand on Mallek’s back as he put the glasses on and leaned over to look.

“No primes on this one,” he told her, sitting back up with a wide grin. 

“Pretty good data.” She seemed pleased by this result.

Zebruh sidled up behind Marsti and put his hand on her shoulder. “And do tell, my sweet, what is it you’re doing?”

Marsti jumped to her feet and moved to stand behind Mallek, who backed her away from Zebruh. The pair looked between each other and then simultaneously turned to Bronya. She nodded and pulled down one of the doors on the wall to point out something written in it. “There are numbers on every room. We’ve been comparing which ones have traps with information about the numbers. The room colors don’t seem to matter, but, we think there’s a correlation between the numbers and the traps, specifically we’ve been noticing that rooms with any prime number in the set of three is trapped.”

“Let us check this set before you start making promises.” Marsti didn’t seem all too cross with Bronya, as she was already excitedly looking over the numbers through the door she was at. “They’re all even, should be safe.” She reached through to open the other door and leaned to the side so Mallek could throw the boot around her. It landed harmlessly in the center of the room and they grinned as Mallek drew the boot back up and they moved on to the next.

One by one, each of the other three behaved exactly the way they predicted. The door with 167 shot what Polypa declared to be liquid nitrogen at the boot and instantly froze it, and the door with 503 cut it to bits with wire that sprung from the walls. The last door, no primes, yielded nothing. 

“Okay, one more test.” Mallek nodded at Azjada who made a show of sighing dramatically before lifting him up to the door at the top. “No primes on this one!” He managed to catch the boot when it fell again, having been unscathed by the room above. 

Once again Azjada lifted everyone through the ceiling. Mallek and Marsti didn’t wait for him before climbing two of the ladders on the walls to reach the ceiling. “You could wait for me,” Azjada complained, a bit out of breath.

They shouted back in unison. “Hurry up!” 

Azjada yanked them both off the ladders none too gently and held them up to the next door. Lynera noted with amusement that they instinctively reached for each other since there wasn’t anything else to hold onto. 

“Well?” Bronya called up to them.

“Give us a minute!” Marsti shot back.

Mallek’s face dropped. He shook his head. “This one’s prime.” Azjada lowered them much quicker than he’d initially lowered himself.

Looking at how dejected Bronya was, Lynera found her voice. “Well, that’s okay, we’ll just go to the side first. Then we can go up.”

“Excellent idea, my angel,” Zebruh said, already walking to one of the doors. “We can just pop through here and then we’ll be able to go up.”

“Hey, let Mallek check that first,” Marsti called after him, even though he was already halfway through the passageway. 

“You can check it, darling, you’re just as good, even though you’re a rustie!”

Marsti’s jaw dropped and she crossed her arms over her chest. “Okay, or just go into an unchecked room then. Why not?” 

“See, I told you, you did gre-AAAAA!” The doors slammed shut and the group exchanged shocked looks. Polpya reached over to the door and slid it open, and the others crowded around despite themselves. Inside was a mess of indigo blood, and chunks of meat, cut by something razor thin and precise. Polypa let the door slid shut.

“...As I was saying, let Mallek check the rooms first. I don’t have all of the primes memorized, and, clearly, if we haven’t looked at the numbers, _we don’t know_.” Marsti stalked across the room and pulled the next door down with more force than was altogether needed.

* * *

“We have been going for hours, is there even a top to this place?” 

“It’s not like any of the rest of us want to be here, okay? Not safe.” Mallek regretted snapping at Azjada when he let him fall to the floor without the psionic buffer. 

Marsti was next to him in a second, checking him over for broken bones and other injuries, and pointedly ignoring Azjada and Bronya arguing behind her. Mallek tugged her hands away from his ribs- there was definitely at least one cracked- and waited until she met his eyes. “Marsti. I’m fine.” Her eyes were beautiful. This was definitely not the right time to notice that.

“If you’re fine, then why aren’t you standing?”

Mallek had no good answer for that. The fall had him seeing dark shapes in the orange light. “...I’ll be fine in a minute.”

Marsti tightened her grip on his hands and pulled him up. He staggered up with her, only to immediately lay his head against her shoulder. The room seemed to spin and he held onto her for balance. “So, um, if- if I wasn’t okay, would you be able to do anything about it?” 

He winced as she gently touched the back of his head, already feeling a trickle of blood running down. Marsti lowered her hands to his back and held him steady. “No. No, I wouldn’t be able to do anything. We need you awake and moving, and all that would help you would be to rest.” 

Mallek grimaced as he leaned his weight off of Marsti and pulled her arms away from him. “Good thing I’m fine, then.” 

“Good thing.” 

Polypa and Lynera appeared at their sides, evidently out of nowhere. “Come on,” Polypa whispered as she grabbed Mallek’s arm and tugged him over to a door. Lynera opened it and stood to the side while Polypa planted herself between Mallek and Azjada. Not that she needed to, he was more than occupied with verbally sparring Bronya. Mallek felt a surge of appreciation for them, even if he knew they were only protecting him so he could get them out.

Deciphering the numbers took longer, as they swam around his vision and he swore they changed at least twice. “Safe,” he announced, already reaching through for the other door. His legs shook when he climbed out the other side but he stayed on his feet, with one hand braced against the wall.

He turned back to see Marsti climbing through after him and reached out to help her down. She smacked away the help and dropped to the ground not a second before a metal tube popped out from below the door. Mallek stared at it, frozen in shock, until Marsti’s fist closed on his jacket and pulled him away. She tugged him into a corner and held them tightly together as acid sprayed from the tubes near each door, concentrating in the center of the room. 

Mallek closed his eyes, stinging from the vapors in the air, and held Marsti as tight as he could. She was stock still against him, so he knew the shaking was all from him. After all they’d gone through, they were going to die because he’d read the numbers wrong. 

But then the acid slowed to a drizzle and Marsti was shoving him back the way they’d come. Polypa was pulling them up, through the hatch and to safety, and all of them were yelling something. 

Marsti, half in the passageway still, and Bronya were the only ones that didn’t look ready to push him back out through the door. Bronya would have been well on her way to calming Lynera if every word from Polypa or Azjada didn’t wind her up again. Mallek took off his glasses and covered his ears and let himself slide down the wall. They weren’t going to listen, they weren’t going to care what had happened, the numbers had been wrong and it was his fault- 

“Mallek! Mallek!” He wrenched his eyes open to find it was Polypa shaking him. She’d gotten past Bronya, no hard feat since she was trying to fend off three angry trolls at once. She knelt down to his eye level and put her hands near the base of his neck. He pulled his knees up to his chest as if that would make him any safer and reached up to push her hands away, she was going to strangle him, he swore the numbers had been right- 

Polypa took hold of his hands when he went to push hers away. “Hey, good. Stay with us now.” 

That- that was not what he’d expected. He stared blankly at her, confused in a way he didn’t know how to express. 

Luckily, she seemed to understand. “We don’t have much of a chance at getting out without you. Yeah, I’m mad, but... it wasn’t totally your fault. Stay awake, okay?” Mallek nodded, and slumped against the wall when the movement sent spikes through his brain. Well, that was one less potential murderer to worry about...

Azjada did not appear to agree with her. “He tried to kill us, stop coddling him! I could just as easily use my psionics to keep us safe, why are we even still bothering with this numbers nonsense? Just let me put that highblood scum out of its misery and we can all just go!”

“Don’t you dare!” Broyna’s fingers were curled into fists and Mallek could see the jade in the tips of her ears. “He’s one of us, and we are all getting out of this!” 

Lynera was fidgeting with her hand in her pocket and she seemed torn between rounding on Azjada with Bronya and pushing past them both to yell at him more. 

“He isn’t one of us! He’s clearly working with whoever put us in here! You heard Polypa, the trap didn’t activate until after  _ Marsti _ went in. They’re programmed to ignore him because he’s a spy and you’re an idiot if you don’t see it too.” Azjada’s psionics sparked around Bronya and before Mallek saw her move Lynera had a knife pressed to his throat, drawing a thin line of gold on his grey skin.

Her voice was winter cold. “You will not hurt Bronya, you will not threaten Bronya, and you will not insult Bronya. Am I clear?”

The psionics flickered out as Azjada pushed Lynera away. “Where did you even get that, you crazy bitch?”

“Lynera?” There was a note in Bronya’s voice that was bordering on heartbreak. “Have you have a knife this whole time? And, you didn’t tell me.”

Lynera’s face flickered between guilt and horror, eventually settling on indignation. “Well, it isn’t like I put it there! It was just in my pocket.”

“But you didn’t tell us.” Polypa was only a few inches from her face, a snarl playing across her lips. Lynera blanched and took a few steps away from her. 

The four trolls in the center of the room did not seem in any way capable of steering away from a fight, and despite Bronya’s half-hearted efforts to sway the other three from physical violence, she herself was inching closer to it. Marsti finally climbed down and sat beside Mallek. 

“So, any bets on which one of them is gonna hit first?” Her tone was dry but Mallek recognized it as a stab at humor. 

“Lynera will, at Azjada, but Poylpa’ll be the last one standing at the end.” This drew a sharp chuckle from her and the vice grip around Mallek’s heart eased. Marsti was okay with him, he could live with whatever else. “Hey, I just- I want you to know, I’m sorry. I should have been more careful.”

“Don’t be. You were right.” He turned to look at her. Marsti had always acted a bit cynical but there was something very off about her voice right now. Was she- crying? Or maybe about to? “The numbers weren’t prime. I’ve been trying to figure it out but I’ve got nothing here.” 

“Oh, no. No, no, no, no,  _ no _ .” 

“Yeah.” 

“What are we gonna do?”

“No idea, man.”

Mallek rubbed the heel of his palm into his eye. “Do we tell them?” 

“To be perfectly honest, I was gonna ask you that.” They watched the escalating argument taking place a few feet away. Azjada was in the middle of threatening to leave, and Bronya was yelling that they probably didn’t even need to be going up anyways, and Polypa and Lynera were wearing matching expressions of unadulterated fury. 

“Let’s not, just let ‘em think I messed it up. Maybe it was just this one? Break the pattern once to screw with us? It’s worked so far...”

Marsti nodded. “Okay. This’ll be our secret then. Hope it lasts.” 

Something Azjada had said suddenly seemed of the utmost importance, and try as he might Mallek couldn’t shake the feeling. “Hey, back there, I was in there a good what, five seconds? And it didn’t... Well, aren’t they usually immediate? All the ones I ran into alone were anyways, and-”

“It wasn’t triggered by a motion sensor.” Coming from Marsti, it sounded like the most obvious thing in the world, even though it hadn’t even occurred to him earlier. “Most of them are, but there are others in here too. Before we ran into each other, didn’t you run into a couple of ones that went off with other things? Sound, weight, and, hell, one time I just breathed in a room and it went off.”

“Oh. So, this one... this one was a heat sensor, right?”

She reached over and put her hand in his. It was so much warmer than his own that it beat off the chill of the maze for a moment. “Yeah, exactly. You run a lot closer to room temperature than I do. It’s about the only thing that could be mechanically differentiated between us.”

“Right, of course. Makes total sense.” Mallek felt his eyelids droop lower and couldn’t find in it himself to stop them. He leaned into Marsti, who once again froze stock still.

“Mallek?” When he didn’t answer, she shoved him upright, the sudden motion making the orange room burst with dancing spots of color. “I thought you said you were fine.”

“Thought you said you couldn’t do anything.”

“...Fair enough.” Marsti pushed herself to her feet. “Wait here then, I’ll look at the next one and let you know if I need help.”

Mallek turned his attention to the raging argument in the center of the room in a last ditch effort to remain awake while Marsti worked. 

“-then why haven’t we reached the top then?” Azjada and Polypa were against each other now, Lynera having retreated somewhat and Bronya attempting to break them apart.

“I don’t fucking know, maybe we’re just really far down! Maybe the next one is the top! Do you have a better idea?”

Azjada’s crackling psionics froze in midair, then flickered out. He evidently did not. “There’s something weird going on here.”

Polypa’s eyebrows jumped up. “Oh? Oh, really, do tell? What could possibly be weird here? Surely, it’s not this entire situation?”

“You don’t have to be so sarcastic about it, you little-”

“Guys, guys, please!” Bronya physically pushed them away from each other. “Let’s just- let’s just keep it together, okay?”

Azjada stamped his foot and blew some of his ridiculously long hair out of his eyes. “You’re all slowing me down. These pitiful attempts at hazards are no true threat to someone of my caliber.”

“Oh yeah?” Polypa’s voice was low and threatening. “Prove it then.”

“Fine.”

“Fine!”

“No, this is not fine!” Bronya jumped in Azjada’s path with her hands held up in a stopping motion. “We have to stay together.”

“Let him go, B.” Polypa pulled her to the side and nodded towards the door Mallek and Marsti had gone in. “Just let him go.”

Azjada drew himself to his full height and marched towards the door. Mallek pushed himself up and stumbled out of his way, careful not to make eye contact with the furious troll. Azjada threw the doors open with his psionics and crawled through.

Mallek jumped when Marsti touched his shoulder. “Wonder if gold is hot enough to set it off,” she whispered. Mallek didn’t have an answer, but he suspected she wasn’t actually asking for one. He held out a hand and Marsti took it silently. They stepped forward with Lynera to watch. 

Azjada strode casually to the center of the room and held out his palms. The tubes that had retracted into the wall since Mallek and Marsti had left emerged again and sprayed acid so strong it could be smelled from the other cube. 

But none of it touched Azjada. It spun about him in a series of flashy, circular patterns, and he held it in orbit a few seconds after the trap sequence had ended before allowing it to fall to the floor with hardly a splash. He turned back to face them and bowed deeply.

“Au revoir,” he called mockingly. Polypa sniffed indignantly as Azjada waved a hand at another door to slide it open. 

Mallek stumbled as pressure against his shoulder was released by someone beside him pulling away and darting towards the door. “Azjada! Azjada, wait, we have to stay together!”

“Bronya, no!” The two jades struggled for a moment before Bronya wrested herself free of Lynera and clambered through after him. Marsti’s nails dug into Mallek’s arm, but she said nothing. He lifted a hand over hers and took a step back from the chaos, pushing her back with him. She offered no resistance, though Mallek didn’t know if that was from shock or agreement.

Polypa had her arms wrapped around Lynera and as much as the girl thrashed to be released, there wasn’t anything she could do as Polypa drug her away from Bronya. It occurred to Mallek that Lynera could likely use her knife to free herself if she chose, but in her panic she seemed to have forgotten it. 

The gentle thud of Bronya’s boots hitting the floor in the other room silenced Lynera. Her sudden acquiescence was rewarded by Polypa allowing her to inch forward enough to see through, though she maintained a tight grip around her chest. 

“She’s colder, she’s a midblood. She might not set it off,” Marsti whispered. Mallek tightened his hand around hers.

“How long until it resets?”

“The longest I’ve counted was fifteen seconds.”

No one breathed as Bronya walked over to tug on Azjada’s coat. A deep scowl crossed over his face and he batted her away, back to the center of the room, before climbing into the tunnel to the next room.

The trap sputtered to life and Mallek turned away and focused on Marsti. She watched over his shoulder for a moment, then ducked her head and buried her face against him. The thought that they should help Polypa restrain Lynera crossed his mind but he couldn’t manage to move, so he just listened to the two girls fight beside them and hugged Marsti like it would somehow keep either of them safe. 

The silence was somehow worse. Lynera crumpled to the floor as though she was the one who had died. Polypa awkwardly papped her cheeks, clearly unsure how or if she could comfort her. 

Then, with barely a whisper, there wasn’t a room there at all. All four trolls gaped at the empty space where their friend had just been as another room slid into place, a dull yellow glow illuminating it. Marsti was to first to process what had happened. 

“They  _ move _ ,” she whispered incredulously against Mallek’s ear. When he didn’t answer her, she grabbed him by the shoulders and shook him. “The cubes  _ move _ ! No wonder we haven’t hit the top yet! They  _ move _ !” 

Lynera rounded on her like lightning. “Does it  _ matter _ ?” As quickly as the fire in her eyes started, it faded and she slumped against Polypa. “You were right, we’re in here to die.” 

Marsti pulled Mallek away from the girls. “Okay, we’ll just let Polypa deal with that, you, stay with me. This is it. We can get out. There’s something more to the numbers that we missed, talk to me, we can figure it out now.” Marsti held up her hands to illustrate her points with her fingers. “We ruled out a coordinate system because there were too many numbers, right? But, if they move, that would require more numbers to plot each iteration. Each of the three digit numbers could be a coordinate, that would make the cube 10 rooms in every direction. No, no, that’s way too small.” Marsti shook her head and began pacing. 

“What about plot labelling?” Mallek asked her. Marsti raised her eyebrows in confusion. “Okay, so, this thing has to be controlled by a computer, which would have to have a labelling system for every coordinate that it could place a box in. If 10 is too small, the next labeling system higher would be alphabetical, so, 26 across. We've travelled through 28 rooms by my count, and we've probably moved at least once without realizing it.”

“26... Oh, that’s it! That’s it!” Marsti jumped excitedly. “There are 3 numbers labelling each room, each with 3 digits, if we take the digits as x, y, and z coordinates, and add the numbers, we’ll get coordinates with a minimum of 0 and and maximum of 27! Out! Coordinates that are out of the cube!” She was crying now, happy tears, Mallek was pretty sure. “And, the best part, they don’t have to be in the same digits place for it to work, because that’s how they’ve mapped the time coordinate, see, with permutations of the original three numbers! You see it, right? _That’s_ why they aren’t labelled with proper coordinates to start with! Mallek, we did it, we solved it!” 

Mallek’s knees almost buckled when Marsti threw her entire weight on him for a hug, but he managed to hold her up. “Alright. Let’s get out of here, the sooner the better.” 

“Couldn’t agree more.” Mallek gently pushed her away and nodded for her to check the one beside them. As Marsti stuck her head through the door to see the numbers, Polypa waved for Mallek’s attention.

“Do you think you could explain it to us so we can help?” Polypa pointed to the jade sobbing in her arms and mouthed ‘distract her’ over her head.

“Right, yeah.” Mallek moved back beside them and pulled down the door leading to the new room to point at the numbers. “Basically, we’re looking for rooms that have a 0 or 9 in every number. It has to be the same one though, a 0 and two 9s won’t cut it.” As an afterthought, he added, “Don’t go in until after we’ve looked at the numbers too though. The rooms that go out of the cube aren’t certain to be safe.”

Polypa mouthed ‘perfect.’ “Hey, hey, you hear that? That’s not very complicated, right? Come on, let’s help check.” She pried Lynera off herself and papped her cheeks a few times. “Come on now, you’re not gonna make me do math alone, are you?” 

Lynera dejectedly shook her head and followed Polypa’s guidance to the door. Marsti bounced over to Mallek. “Okay, I checked those three walls and the floor, no luck yet, but...” Her voice rose excitedly and she paused as if waiting for a response from Mallek. He nodded to her. “I think I know what we did wrong with the traps! So, we were looking for primes, right? And primes only have one factor! But, powers of primes also only have one factor! And the room had 729 and I just finished dividing it out and guess what? It’s a power of 3. Mallek, we have rules again. More time consuming rules, sure, but rules. Okay, help me with one of these, my method’s a lot slower than having primes memorized.” 

She grabbed Mallek’s hand and drug him over to the wall that Lynera and Polypa were looking at. “Hey, any luck?”

“Not out,” Polypa reported.

“That’s okay, we think we know how to tell if they’re safe now!”

Polypa’s brow furrowed in confusion. “Didn’t we already?”

“Um, yes. So, we have to take the numbers and divide them into their factors, like how 16 divides into 4 and 4 and then 2 and 2 and 2 and 2, that’s just one factor. One factor is bad, multiple factors is good. Got it?” 

Lynera and Polypa stared at Marsti. “No. Are you sure you’re speaking Alternian?” 

“It doesn’t matter. Nothing matters.” Lynera crumpled to the ground.

Polypa waved her hands at Marsti and Mallek. “Do your math thing, I’ve got her.”

Marsti pulled Mallek into the crawlspace beside her. “Okay, you take right, I’ll take left, whoever hits a second factor first takes the middle.”

Mallek quietly slid his glasses on, glad that Marsti was so optimistic. It was a definite change of pace to the hopeless he’d grown accustomed to from all of them, but she seemed to the see the light at the end of the tunnel. Mallek was determined to see it too. 

His number was 392, which Mallek almost gave up on after several rounds of dividing by 2 resulted in more even numbers, but he eventually got it down to 49, which meant it had more than one factor. Marsti had already checked the first two numbers and declared the room safe to enter. 

“Shall we?” he asked, pulling off the thick reading glasses.

“Absolutely,” Marsti replied, already clambering through. 

Mallek followed her once Polypa had noticed them leaving. She’d convince Lynera to come, he was sure. 

Marsti had already thrown open another door, and pointed to the one directly behind her when Mallek loudly entered the room. “Go check that one, exit numbers only for now.” Finished with that door, she let it close and crossed to the one across from their door. 

Mallek turned the door open and sighed. Even with a new direction, this was beyond disgustingly repetitive. What if there was only one cube that went out and they couldn't find it? Or, worse, what if they were wrong about something? They’d used a lot of assumptions to get here... But even at that, his bloodpusher sped up upon actually looking at the numbers on the door.

“Marsti, this one has three 9s!” 

She was by his side in an instant, completely breathless. “Check the factors,” she urged, almost crawling on him for a better look. Her short hair brushing against his neck distracted Mallek for a moment, but he forced himself to focus again. 

“...by my count it’s clear.”

“...yeah, me too.” 

They looked at each other, struck by the possibility that they would actually make it out alive. 

“Let’s go, then. Lynera, Polypa, this room goes out!” Marsti started through, but Mallek turned to make sure they had heard. They weren’t following. 

Azjada stood behind Lynera with his hand over her mouth and her knife pressed against her throat. “That way out, huh? I knew you nerds would figure it out for me.”

Polypa advanced towards him, her hands held up in surrender. “Hey, let her go, man. No one’s trying to fight here. We can get out without anyone else dying.”

Azjada tightened his grip on Lynera. “I’m going to get out. I’m going to win!” He drew the knife across her neck and let her fall to the floor. 

“No!” Polypa threw herself at Azjada, though she didn’t get within three foot before she was thrown by his psionics. She flew a foot or two backwards and fell to the ground. 

Mallek was torn between going to see if she was alive and keeping himself between Azjada and the door. If he got through he’d kill Marsti. 

Azjada didn’t give him the chance to do either. Mallek heard the psionics before he felt himself behind picked up and tossed to the side. He landed heavily. The impact knocked the air from his lungs and sent pain from his previous head injury spiking through him again. Mallek blinked the stars from his eyes and staggered to his feet just in time to join Polypa in yanking Azjada back into their cube. 

He turned on them and kicked out at Mallek. Mallek heard Polypa scream and pushed himself off the floor to see her clutching at the knife stuck in her shoulder. She tipped her head towards the door. “Go stop him. Go!”

Mallek staggered to the door and drug himself through. He could hear Azjada saying something to Marsti but couldn’t make out his words. Behind him, Mallek heard Polypa grunt as she wrenched the knife out of her shoulder. 

“-personal, it’s just I have to win. I have to get back to her.” Azjada had Marsti backed into a corner. She glowered at him, evidently not all that afraid.

“Right. So you’re still stuck on this being a competition. Think you can win with the condition your psionics are in?”

Marsti’s words seemed to jar Azjada. His psionics flickered to life and slammed Marsti into the wall. “My psionics are just fine,” he hissed.

“If that were true, you would have already killed me with them.”

Mallek saw Marsti flick her eyes towards him advancing on them and hoped that Azjada didn’t notice. 

Unfortunately, he did.

The flickering static of psionics filled the air around Mallek and forced him to his knees. He blacked out for a moment and awoke to the blurry sight of Azjada looming over him. 

“Can’t you just do the smart thing for once and  _ stay down _ ?” 

Mallek shook his head, already reaching forward to try and push off the ground. Marsti was right, his power now was definitely not as strong as it was when they’d all met. With a sudden burst of determination, Mallek got to his feet and glared at the psychic. “How about you stay down this time?”

A metallic scraping sound came from behind Azjada and Mallek resisted the urge to look at what Marsti was doing. An identical sound from his left told him that Polypa had made it to the final room too. 

Azjada let out what was probably meant to be a ferocious battle cry but after so long in the cube without food or water was a strikingly child-like imitation of one. He raised a fist, sparking with power, and swung it at Mallek. 

As he did, Mallek ducked under it and tackled him, throwing them both through the door set in the floor that Marsti had opened. 

Azjada cried out as he fell, his psionics slowing his descent but doing nothing to stop the rows of razor wire that sprung from the walls.

Mallek twisted his head up to see Marsti in the room above, hanging onto his calf with a vice grip. A moment later, Polpya’s face appeared and she extended a hand down to him. 

* * *

Safely in the exit room, with Polpya’s jade stained jacket now tied around her shoulder, the three remaining trolls sat in dejected silence. They’d made it to safety, they hoped, but at great cost. 

Polpya broke the silence first.

“So, you’re sure this is it?”

“Pretty sure, yeah.” Marsti scrubbed at some of the olive blood on her hands.

“But we don’t know when?”

“We’re just gonna have to wait for it to move.”

“Okay.”

“What do you think’s out there?”

The girls looked to Mallek, faces unreadable.

“I don’t know.”

“I don’t care.”

“Yeah, fair enough.”


End file.
